Alaska isn’t exactly known for it’s restaurant scene. When it comes to pizza though, it has a major claim to fame: Moose’s Tooth Pub and Pizzeria, the highest grossing independent pizza restaurant in the United States of America.
Moose’s Tooth, located in the 300,000-person city of Anchorage, has annual sales of around $6 million. Owned by two rock climbing friends, Rod Hancock and Matt Jones, Moose’s Tooth opened in the late 1990s. Hancock had a passion cooking, and Jones had a thing for home brewing, but neither had restaurant experience, according to Pizza Magazine Quarterly.
Turns out Alaska was a good place for them to get into the restaurant business. Moose’s Tooth was a hit almost as soon as it opened, Jones told Alaska Daily News, and the pizzeria has expanded four times. The duo has also expanded their brand with a theater, grill, and brewery. Drunk moose aren’t the only things hungry up in Anchorage after all.
If you make it up to Anchorage for a pizza and beer, expect a long wait. Judging from Moose’s Tooth’s success, though, it’ll be well worth it.
jpritchard on May 8th, 2019 at 19:31 UTC »
$6,000,000 in pizza sales in Alaska is like... 60 pizzas, right?
I_like_PnutButter on May 8th, 2019 at 19:15 UTC »
I have been there on a regular basis. Their pizza is amazing, they make homemade rootbeer that is second to none. No joke. I'm not surprised that they hit this record!
Niemand262 on May 8th, 2019 at 19:06 UTC »
I once visited a friend in Fairbanks and learned that the pizza delivery place there delivers uncooked pizzas. The delivery routes were far enough, and the temperature cold enough, that the pizzas were almost guaranteed to be cool by the time they arrived. So, they deliver a pizza uncooked and you pop it in the oven when it arrives. It's one extra step, but god damn it was delicious right out of the oven.